Digital audio compact disks, more commonly referred to as compact disks or CDs, have gained wide acceptance in recent years. CDs in general have a translucent coating for protecting a digitally encoded optically read medium from damage. A problem experienced with CDs is a result of improper handling by the user. While the translucent coating protects the encoded medium from damage quite well, the coating has a tendency to pickup finger prints and smudges from the user's hands. Those smudges negatively affect the clarity of the translucent coating which in turn deteriorates the sound quality of the CD player unable to cleanly read the encoded music through the smudge.
In addition, if the CD is forced from its storage unit, the flexing of the CD over time may cause cracking of the translucent coating, exposing the encoded medium to the atmosphere, leading to oxidation and a deliniation of sound quality.